Heavy Slam or Gyro Ball for Steelix?

Question

Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Impish Nature
- Heavy slam/gyro ball
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
that is my set. Heavy slam has more pp and steelix is pretty heavy. Gyro ball is great for this slow steel-snake thing and curse lowers the speed but the pp kills me. I cant decide.

Answer 1

Definitely Heavy Slam

While Steelix is slow, Gyro Ball actually misses the KO on the two Pokémon you're trying to hit the hardest: Mega Gardevoir and Sylveon. True, it does well against fast Gardevoir, but a lot of them run only 20 Speed EVs and Trick Room. Here are some calcs:

0 Atk Mega Steelix Gyro Ball (61 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Gardevoir: 116-140 (66.2 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Mega Steelix Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Gardevoir: 234-276 (133.7 - 157.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

0 Atk Mega Steelix Gyro Ball (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 80-96 (39.6 - 47.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 Atk Mega Steelix Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 234-276 (115.8 - 136.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Even with Sand Force Gyro Ball cannot KO. Either you run heavy Attack investment, or just run Heavy Slam.

Comments

but curse :v

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Tbh I still think Heavy Slam is better in the event that you need to kill a Fairy asap and can't set up Curse. After a Curse boost the damage doesn't really matter anyways, so might as well go for the one with the most PP.